Afghan Forces Are Praised, Despite Still Relying Heavily on U.S. Help

CAMP MOREHEAD, Afghanistan — In an hourlong ceremony in a valley a few miles southeast of Kabul on Sunday, more than 300 members of the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command stood at attention at Camp Morehead, a training base, as a succession of officials, American and Afghan, told them how successful they had been at fighting the Taliban.

And with the total number of special operation forces soon to reach 30,000, a full corps, their enemies would flee in the face of them, the commandos were assured.

President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, in strident tones at odds with his usual mild demeanor, told the gathered troops that they had saved the sovereignty of the country when the Taliban threatened.

“The Taliban have never won against the commandos and the Ktah Khas,” added Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the commander of the Afghanistan war effort, referring to a unit of the Afghan special operations forces. “They never will.”

But all the confidence and congratulations disguised a larger truth at the heart of why the Taliban have managed to take back so much territory in Afghanistan.

The country’s current number of 21,000 special operations troops, while set to grow soon, account for only 7 percent of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. But they do from 70 percent to 80 percent of the actual fighting.

The bulk of the Afghan military and police forces are still well below the readiness and ability levels that American and NATO war planners hoped they would have reached when they began training the country’s security forces in 2002.

As President Trump prepares to announce his Afghanistan strategy, American and Afghan military officials appear to believe the plan will resemble what the Pentagon would like to see: authorization of 3,900 more American troops who would be used to continue to help train, advise and assist the hugely challenged Afghan security forces.

That number, American and NATO officials said, would likely be supplemented by a few hundred additional advisers and trainers from NATO and other countries that have contributed to the American-led war effort here.

If Mr. Trump does not grant the Pentagon’s request for a more robust American troop level, there is concern that the Afghan forces may not be able to even maintain the current stalemate, causing the country’s security situation to backslide further, and that Kabul, the capital, could come under more high-visibility attacks.

Even if the extra numbers do come through, military officials acknowledged that Afghanistan’s security forces were nowhere close to being able to defend the country on their own or to keep it from returning to its former status as a launching pad for terrorist attacks abroad.

A resurgent Taliban, which by American estimates controls more than 40 percent of the population centers of Helmand Province in the south, continues to bedevil the beleaguered Afghan security forces, while the Islamic State has taken root in Nangarhar Province in the east.

Despite the challenges, Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the head of United States Central Command, and other senior officers presented an upbeat assessment of the war effort in a series of briefings with reporters during a visit to Afghanistan to meet with the country’s military and political leaders.

The Taliban had not managed to take any provincial capitals or to hold any important cities in this year’s fighting season, they said.

“The enemy is not doing very well,” said Maj. Gen. James B. Linder, the American Special Operations commander in Afghanistan. “The reality on the ground,” he added, “is quite different” from what the Taliban’s claims may suggest.

In an attack last month at the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul, only two civilians were killed, military officials said, noting that the attack could have been much worse were it not for the fast response of the Afghan police special operations forces.

What was played down in discussions with reporters was how much help from the United States military the Afghan special forces require, with many operations closely advised and even led, in effect, by their American partners.

The uncertainty brought about by Mr. Trump’s delay in announcing a new Afghanistan strategy has not helped the situation on the ground, either, and a number of Afghan security officials expressed sharp opposition to one proposal that Mr. Trump has been considering: outsourcing the mission of training, advising and assisting Afghan troops to private contractors.

That would be “running away from responsibilities, from the promises that were made to the civilians in the region,” said Sgt. Maj. Rehle Hussaini, an Afghan military official attending a meeting on Saturday at Bagram Air Base, the main American military base in the country.

One concern was that private contractors might be more eager to extend the fighting in Afghanistan as a moneymaking venture than trying to end it.

But none of those misgivings were evident at the Camp Morehead ceremony on Sunday.

The array of smartly dressed special forces, including a handful of women, cheered and clapped as one general after another praised them as Afghanistan’s finest and bravest.

When Afghan commandos “appear on the battlefield,” General Nicholson told them, “the enemy has no choice but to run, or die.”

Rod Nordland contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Afghan Troops Hailed, but Still Need U.S.. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe